Tiangong, the Chinese space station

AFP English

China's only woman spaceflight engineer will be among a fresh crew of three astronauts sent to its Tiangong space station this week, Beijing announced Tuesday. VIDEOGRAPHIC

Transcript

00:00The Chinese space station Tiangong, or Celestial Palace, operates at an altitude of about 400

00:14kilometers above the Earth.

00:15In the form of a T, it is composed of a central module, Tianhe, Celestial Harmony, which provides

00:22living quarters, with two modules, Wentian and Mengtian, for scientific experiments.

00:28Seventeen meters long, the central module is about 50 square meters and can accommodate

00:33three astronauts.

00:36It has a door for entering and leaving the space station.

00:40Much smaller than the International Space Station, which involves the United States,

00:44Russia, Europe, Japan and Canada, the Chinese space station weighs a quarter of the ISS,

00:49which has 16 parts.

00:52Eleven missions were required to assemble the Tiangong, which was designed to last for

00:56at least 10 years.

00:58The transfer vehicle, the Shenzhou, transports astronauts and equipment, while the automated

01:03cargo vessel, Tianzhou, transports freight to the station.

01:09In the scientific modules, there are 20 mini-laboratories equipped with centrifuges, freezers which

01:14can reach minus 80 degrees Celsius, a high-temperature oven, multiple lasers and an atomic clock.

01:22The astronauts will conduct research in biotechnology in microgravity on living tissues.

01:29Researchers from other countries, including Japan, Russia and Mexico, will also have access

01:33to the orbital laboratory.

01:35China constructed its own space station after the United States refused to allow its participation

01:41in the ISS.

01:52NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology

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